Tuesday, August 22, 2006

More generally, the participants said, the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd. “I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States,” said another person who attended.

Maybe he should invite Jon Stewart over to explain it to him. Or perhaps read an analysis in a newspaper or a few articles or a book or something?

More generally, the participants said, the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd. “I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States,” said another person who attended.

Maybe he should invite Jon Stewart over to explain it to him. Or perhaps read an analysis in a newspaper or a few articles or a book or something?

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Well, Bush used 9/11 as an excuse to do something he'd wanted to do for some time - invade Iraq - so it shouldn't be a surprise that Israel apparently was planning their attack on Lebanon long before those soldiers were seized.

And of course, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Bush gave Israel a "green light" for the whole thing and consider it a prelude to a potential attack by the U.S. on Iran.

The last thing that shouldn't surprise anyone is that even though this will all be in the New Yorker and is written by the very respectable Seymour Hersh, you can only read about it in the foreign and the Indie-progressive press (although I did find it buried in a very long column that collects news from the Internet).

What I find interesting about the recent flap when Virginia Senator George Allen called an Indian aide to his Democratic opponent Jim Webb a Macaca is how it didn't occur to Allen that this was a bad idea.

So you're giving a speech. A spy from the other side is standing there with a video camera taping everything you say. So you turn right to the camera and say, "hey macaca, welcome to America."

How is that not a bad idea?

So Webb distributed it everywhere he could and Allen is on the defensive. And Allen was dumb because really, Webb doesn't look like much of a candidate. He's just a Republican who switched parties because of the war. He also made a bit of a mess himself with a flyer that some said was anti-Semitic, understandable when you have a hook-nosed guy with money in his pockets.

The flyer really does look like anti-Semitic propaganda from the old days, but I suspect that may simply be because the artist isn't very good and is just using these sort of broad-stroke images propagandists are drawn for. But what's really notable about the flyer is how pathetic and amateurish and crappy it is. I mean, this guy is running for Senator?

What's interesting about both the flyer and the Macaca comment are they are down by politicians seemingly oblivious to the ways of the modern world. Allen didn't see what was wrong with attempting some sort of humorous chiding with somewhat hostile, possibly racist overtones while his opponent's video camera was trained on him. Webb didn't see the problem with an attack ad that looked like it was produced by an anti-Semitic high school student.

Poor Virginia,whichever way the election goes they're going to wind up with an idiot.

About Me

I write video game reviews/previews and articles on Wii games and peripherals for nintendo.about.com. From 2000 to 2008 I wrote video game reviews for the New York Times. I spend my nights Lindy Hopping. I have a bathtub in my kitchen. That's all you really need to know.